“Happiness” Tops indieWIRE Readers Survey of Top Films of ’98

"Happiness" Tops indieWIRE Readers Survey of Top Films of '98

Todd Solondz’ critically acclaimed and controversial feature film,“Happiness,” was selected as the top film of 1998 in a survey ofindieWIRE readers. Over sixty indieWIRE readers — a cross section offilmmakers, executives, journalists, and other members of the indiecommunity — were polled for the survey which asked participants toselect the top films of the year. Six movies received a majority ofreader’s votes.

“Happiness” is Solondz’ follow-up to the Sundance Grand Jury Prizewinning feature, “Welcome to the Dollhouse.” Originally slated torelease the film October Films dropped the movie after it screened at the 1998Cannes Film Festival and it was subsequently released by Good MachineReleasing.

Thomas Vinterberg’s digitally-shot Danish film, “The Celebration,” tookthe number two spot in the indieWIRE survey, while Roberto Benigni’sItalian language film, “Life is Beautiful,” was number three. Bothfilms debuted at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. “The Celebration,”which is being released by October Films, was produced as a Dogma ’95movie and won the Jury Prize in Cannes, while Benigni’s “Beautiful,” aMiramax release, won the Grand Prize in Cannes.

“The Cruise,” Bennett Miller’s black and white, digitally-shot documentaryportrait of Timothy ‘Speed’ Levitch was voted number four in thereader’s survey. The film debuted at the 1998 Los Angeles IndependentFilm Festival and was released theatrically by Artisan Entertainment.Only two other films received a large number of votes: Walter Salles’“Central Station,” which debuted at Sundance and is being distributed bySony Pictures Classics — it took the number five spot — and VincentGallo’s “Buffalo 66,” which debuted in competition at Sundance, wasreleased by Lions Gate, and took the number six spot.